Wednesday, 9 May 2012

The Urban Cryptobiotic Crust: Many of the roofs in our towns and cities have become covered in a dark patina of microbial growth. It might not look alive, but were we able to observe this thin layer with a microscope we would find an exotic and miniature forest inhabited by fungi, green algae and cyanobacteria. I call this ubiquitous but overlooked microbiological veneer, the Urban Cryptobiotic Crust (UCC). Here the effluent from two fans, and the wash from a lead flashing, has prevented the growth of the UCC, and by causing visible zones of inhibition, this has highlighted this overlooked ecology.

What is Microgeography ?

The microbiological world is a vast domain of life occupied by organisms which are too small to be seen with the naked eye. Because of their diminutive size, its denizens are largely ignored, yet in terms of impact and numbers, they represent the predominate form of life on earth. In fact, in the familiar settings of our towns and cities, microorganisms have established thriving and complex ecologies. Microgeography, explores the relationship between an urban environment and its microbial and human inhabitants through informed observation, and via a variety of playful and inventive strategies. Its aim is to take pedestrians off their predictable macroscopic paths and jolt them into a new awareness of the urban microbiological landscape. This blog documents the places where the boundaries between the microcosm and macrocosm have become visible through the impact of our activities on the urban microbes. It also invites the observer to question the influence of human activity upon this urban microbiological landscape, and hopefully through this, to extrapolate the impact of our actions on to the more visible world beyond.